Well-done! Your article inspired me to post an article itself.
exWTslave
JoinedPosts by exWTslave
-
37
Sledgehammer subtlety: The insidious reworking of Micah 6:8
by rory-ks inmicah 6:8 might be - or have been - a favourite verse of many.
the verse used to read:.
"he has told you, o earthling man, what is good.
-
-
-
1
Go Philosophical When The Unexpected Happens!
by exWTslave inwhen social net work giants like twitter and facebook rejected brian actonss job application, he was philosophical: thats ok, something better may be in the offing, looking forward to lifes next adventure.
his dynamism worked!
he just teamed up with another fantastic colleague from yahoo!, jan koum.
-
-
exWTslave
When social net work giants like Twitter and Facebook rejected Brian Actons’s job application, he was philosophical: that’s ok, something better may be in the offing, looking forward to life’s next adventure. His dynamism worked! He just teamed up with another fantastic colleague from Yahoo!, Jan Koum. They went on to build a company that in scarcely four years became the King Kong of cloud-based messaging, which Facebook recently bought for a whopping sum of $19 billion.
What a great lesson of never moping around and wallowing in misery of rejection. His company managed to amass twice as many users as the corporation that had once rejected him!
In contrast, our being rejected, disfellowshipped, by JWs itself is A GREAT PRIVILEGE!
Why?
1) Only the pure can grasp the truth (the changes in teaching over the years shows they are not pure) (Daniel 12:10)
2) High mind-control org (CULT) is impurity (Proverb 21:4); hence JWs can never become God’s channel on earth! (Mathew 11:29) Cultic practice rejects a loving Creator who made everyone "in HIS image" and thus reduces fellow humans into a mere object, hence is idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)
-
11
100 YEARS OF YEAR'S TEXTS
by La Capra in14:7.. 1988 hope in jehovah and keep his way (ps 37:34).
yes, hope in jehovah, (ps.
(ps.
-
-
exWTslave
A wonderful research--thank you for that!
-
18
The Elders Returned, as Promised!
by exWTslave inwonderful love!.
wonderful love!.
wonderful love!.
-
-
exWTslave
I liked your deep sense of humor--I too feel the way you do!
-
18
The Elders Returned, as Promised!
by exWTslave inwonderful love!.
wonderful love!.
wonderful love!.
-
-
-
18
The Elders Returned, as Promised!
by exWTslave inwonderful love!.
wonderful love!.
wonderful love!.
-
-
exWTslave
Very nice question, it inspired me to write an article itself: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/274485/1/One-Can-Be-Spiritual-With-or-Without-Religions#4955166
-
13
One Can Be Spiritual With or Without Religions!
by exWTslave inbehind all the details in the bible lies the absolute truth: love is the true religion.
(james 1:27) [conversely, self-serving is false religion.colossians 3:5] that means god is not a factor in the true worship.
(habakkuk 2:4) his attitude is that if you are good, it is good for you; and if you do bad, it is bad for you.
-
-
exWTslave
Behind all the details in the Bible lies the absolute truth: LOVE IS THE TRUE RELIGION. (James 1:27) [Conversely, self-serving is false religion.—Colossians 3:5] That means God is not a factor in the true worship. (Habakkuk 2:4) His attitude is that if you are good, it is good for you; and if you do bad, it is bad for you. God is not praised or reproached by man’s action. [We know a humble person does not feel honored or insulted by others—he carries on with his duty unaffected by others’ comments. So is with God] It is our experience that the more loving a person is the more successful he is as he will have also the cooperation from others. This means being spiritual is for one’s own good, it has to be one’s own need!
We know attitude (not action) matters. That is why beating a miscreant and beating by a miscreant are viewed differently. God knows this principle better. (Jeremiah 9:25; Romans 2:25, 26) He also knows there are good people in all religions. “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7, 8; Luke 13:29; Colossian 3:11) God gathers them only in the end. (Mathew 24:31) This makes proselytizations unnecessary—they do not make the world better. On the contrary, proselytization inherently carries the seed of discord (we-are-right & you-are-wrong attitude).
Ironically, religions unwittingly turn people away from God as they teach them to seek favors from their respective Gods (Contrast Mathew 5:3; 16:24), hence are more about materialism. Even when Jesus announced his imminent death, his disciples became only callous, seeking to ensure favors from him. (Mathew 20:17-21) They had witnessed countless miracles (calming of the turbulent sea, resurrections, transfiguration…. ) yet they abandoned their Master—OUT OF FEAR—when he was arrested. (Some may object saying those disciples became courageous after Jesus’s death! If one cannot show integrity to his master when he is alive, when he is in trouble, when he is in need of moral support, what is the use of showing the same after his death?) Throughout the history, BILLIONS OF SOLDIERS (many of whom were atheists) have behaved better than these disciples—they were ready to risk their lives when their countries were in trouble! Even criminals and gangsters show more integrity to their master, when he is in trouble!
Look at an ATHEIST woman, Diana Nyad, 64, who became the first person confirmed to have swum from Cuba to Florida last year—it was done without the aid of a shark-cage in heavily-shark-infested waters for a distance of 180 km. (http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2013/09/02/diana-nyad-cuba-florida-swim/2754645/) Recently on an Oprah Winfrey television show, she said, I can stand at the beach’s edge with the most devout Christian, Jew, Buddhist, go on down the line, and weep with the beauty of this universe and be moved by all of humanity all the billions of people who have lived before us, who have loved and hurt and suffered. To me, my definition of God is HUMANITY, and is the love of humanity! And as we return to that, we just have to remain in awe. Einstein too had some pretty definite ideas of what he believed his universe was about. It was also about awe and he didn’t think there was any contradiction there. He said he believed in a God who revealed himself in the harmony of all that exists; not in the way religions present God.
We all know how to live righteously—that is why we term certain acts human and certain acts inhuman or brutal! We only have to behave ourselves, act according to our own nature!
Nature and purpose of sun is to provide light and heat.
Purpose of fruit-bearing trees is to manifest altruism.
Similarly, purpose of human life is to be humane, which means to live a life of tenderness and compassion, especially for the suffering or distressed—something Jesus declared as qualifying one to inherit eternal life. (Luke 10:25-37) Whether one is an atheist or a theist matters not. One can be an atheist, yet be spiritual. (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/10/14/oprah-winfreys-awkward-conversation-with-marathon-swimmer-diana-nyad-an-atheist-whos-in-awe/), and one can be a theist, yet be a parasite!
That is why Jesus declares:
“The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” (Mathew 21:43)
Your deeds (not religion) matter!
-
18
The Elders Returned, as Promised!
by exWTslave inwonderful love!.
wonderful love!.
wonderful love!.
-
-
exWTslave
Perry, I will tell you a secret--I was secretly following your posts when I was a faithful JW. You influenced me to a great extent!
-
84
BOE Letter: New Adjustments
by pixel in**this was predicted from some members here**.
to all congregations .
re: adjustments in organizational terminology and assembly arrangements .
-
-
exWTslave
In the cow slaughter house, the assassin first does a loving fondling on the neck of the cow before he actually applies his knife. Similarly, GB the arrogance personified replaces words such as overseer (which carries a concept of egoistic elevation over others) with representative!!!
-
18
The Elders Returned, as Promised!
by exWTslave inwonderful love!.
wonderful love!.
wonderful love!.
-
-
exWTslave
Daniel1555 was right (http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/273311/1/I-am-not-going-for-JC), those two elders returned yesterday. They said Body of Elders discussed my case in their meeting on Sunday, and they have something to convey to me. After a normal nice talk, they said: “You were an elder before and Body of Elders has used you for brining many back to God’s organization; hence our reasoning is not going to work in your case.”
I interrupted: “When I stepped down from serving as an elder, I gave you a secondary reason of my busy secular schedule. Actual reason could be discerned from what you just said. I “helped many to return to JWs org, through my shepherding calls.” That means there were many others whom I could not persuade to return to JW org. Because my WT-trained reasoning worked with the gullible, but not with those who had sound reasoning power and were well-grounded in the Bible—these were the ones who actually inspired me to THINK properly!”
They said: “What you are experiencing is typical of most of servants of God. John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus to know whether he was really the messiah. Ultimately, his doubt was cleared. Similarly, having doubts is normal. What is not normal is keeping away from God’s appointed channel.”
I know what you mean—the supposed appointment of “a faithful and discreet slave.” (Mathew 24:45) Here too, context matters. Mathew chapter 24 is the setting which begins with the famous question of disciples: “What are the events that would precede the end of the world?” Jesus gave many events and, as a conclusion he said:
1) One is free to act like an appointed faithful and discreet overseer of a household caring for them or to become an unfaithful and indiscreet overseer, mistreating them (Mathew 24:45-51)
2) One is free to behave like the wise virgins being always prepared, or to behave like the foolish virgins leaving the preparation to the last minute (Mathew 25:1-13)
3) One is free to act like the servants who increased wealth through its diligent use; or to act like the one who “dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.” (Mathew 25:14-30)
4) One is free to care for others as Christ’s brothers and sisters or to be self-serving. (Mathew 25:31-46)
[Interestingly, in the gospels of Mark and Luke, Jesus simply concluded: You are free to be on the watch or to be self-serving! (Mark 13:34-35; Luke 21:34-36)]
Through these four wonderful pictures (a picture is worth a 1000 words), Jesus is conveying, with absolute clarity, a simple message: BE PREPARED WELL IN ADVANCE LOVING OTHERS AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF, because the end (of the world or of you) may come at any time. Hence none of those picturizations suggest even remotely the appointment of God’s organization on earth, because God has a very simple approach. He has defined true religion as LOVE (James 1:27; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8-10; 1 John 4:7, 8; Mathew 7:12, 21-23) and false religion as self-serving. (Colossians 3:5; Philippians 3:19)
Prima facie, this is right, because the true religion, called LOVE, works automatically, without the help of an organization. Everyone wants to be loved—for this to happen, one has to give the love first—this is the experience of everyone on earth. “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:38) When you love, you get good returns, then you make more and more investments in love, and you get more and more returns, and become self-motivated to love more ……. On the contrary, if a person belongs to false religion (self-serving, which is not a big mistake, because a lotus cannot grow without mud), he will find transient joy which will ultimately make him seek the real joy that comes from loving. It is only a matter of time—let him take enough time, but of course without any external force! (Luke 15:11-31)
Besides, God has no need to appoint a religious organization on earth. (Mathew 16:27; Romans 14:12) His agency on earth is (the judiciary wing of) all Governments. (Romans 13:1-6) On the contrary, most religions are like that old religion that earned the name of “killer of prophets.” (Mathew 23:37) And JW org (who prohibits even greeting those who differ with them) would have been the killer of more number of prophets than any other group if they had political powers also. [Courtesy to JW.net as I picked this point from this net] (Fortunately, because of their stand on voting, JWs can never become friends with Governments of this world)
Then the elders said: “Organization is very loving when it comes to caring for its flock, and merciful towards erring ones. But rejecting God’s organization, which is the primary identifying mark of an apostate) is a question of discipline.”
I said: “My little daughter can reply to your threat of discipline (which is a synonym of disfellowshipping among JWs).” I called my 5-year-old daughter and introduced the elders to her, and asked her to sing her most favorite song to them. She sang:
“God’s Love is so wonderful, (thrice)
Oh! Wonderful love!
So high YOU CAN’T GET OVER IT, (Thrice)
Oh! Wonderful love!
So deep YOU CAN’T GET UNDER IT, (thrice)
Oh! Wonderful love!
So wide YOU CAN’T GET AROUND IT, (thrice)
Oh! Wonderful love!”Then I dismissed her, and I told the elders: “You understood what she sang. You cannot disfellowship anybody from God’s love—especially for advocating and practicing something on which, God says, “the entire law” hangs. (Galatians 5:14; Compare Mathew 21:43)
Practicing love is “God’s will” and if one does this, he has nothing to fear (1 John 2:17).
They left saying: “We would meet again.”
I said: As friends, you are always welcome to meet me. But you have no right to call me for a JC. Because you came to my door-steps when I was an unsuspecting member of my former Church, claimed you, you only, have the truth, made me a JW, rather made me a good-for-nothing person! No more wastage! You can complete all the formalities yourselves, without me!
Remember: You CANNOT starve a person who delightfully does fasting!